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The accolades just won't stop coming for Jonathan Toews. Never before has a player won an Olympic gold medal, been named the best forward at the tournament, and won the Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe Trophy all in the same season.

Toews' latest honor is one of those modern-day perks Gordie Howe or Bobby Hull never could have dreamed -- cover star of an award-winning NHL video game.

At a press conference in Toronto on Monday, video-game giant EA Sports named Toews its cover star for NHL 11, the latest edition in its NHL video-game franchise that will hit retail stores in North America in September. The game also will be for sale on shop.nhl.com.

All this, and Toews, the captain of the Blackhawks, hasn't even turned 23 yet.

Toews' cover-boy status marks the first time that EA Sports has put players from the same team on the game's cover in back-to-back seasons. Patrick Kane, who scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal earlier this month, graced the cover of NHL 10.

"I am really excited to be on the cover of NHL 11," Toews said. "It's been an amazing year for me and the team, and it's nice to end it by being a part of a game I played growing up. The NHL games have always been great, so it's an honor for me to be a part of the EA Sports family."

The timing of this announcement couldn't have come at a better time. The No. 3 pick of the 2007 Entry Draft has emerged as one of the NHL's top players, clutch performers and respected leaders. During the 2009-10 season, he had 25 goals and a career-high 43 assists in 76 games. Toews then placed second in postseason scoring with 29 points (22 assists) in 22 games, and then got to accept the Stanley Cup from Commissioner Gary Bettman, ending a 49-year title drought in Chicago. A few days later, Toews and 2 million of his closest friends paraded with the Cup through downtown Chicago.

"Jonathan Toews is one of the best centers in the NHL today," said Jordan Edelstein, Vice-President of Marketing for EA Sports. "He is a great ambassador for the sport of hockey and his impact on the sport this year is undeniable. It's great to have him in the EA Sports family."

NHL 11 will be available for the Playstation3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system. It is developed by EA Canada in Burnaby, B.C.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary with NHL 11, the EA Sports NHL franchise has won 22 Sports Game of the Year awards over the past three years and is poised to raise the bar yet again. With a revolutionary real-time physics engine that brings an unprecedented amount of realism to the franchise, game-play innovations like broken sticks and a revamped face-off system, as well as the addition of players from the Canadian Hockey League, NHL 11 is set to be the most complete hockey video game ever created